


The scenic route to the Lethe (goes through the poplars)

by Speculative_Silliness



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Introspection, Pre-The Lost Hero (Heroes of Olympus)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26966263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Speculative_Silliness/pseuds/Speculative_Silliness
Summary: Even knowing that he will theoretically in good hands, Bianca can't move on without seeing for herself that her brother will be okay.  Thus, she keeps Hazel company for a time - and when the time comes, she assures the girl is found.
Relationships: Bianca di Angelo & Hazel Levesque, Bianca di Angelo & Nico di Angelo, Nico di Angelo & Hazel Levesque
Comments: 1
Kudos: 19





	The scenic route to the Lethe (goes through the poplars)

It would be so very easy to hate Hazel. Bianca is a ghost, and a child of Hades. Shades sometimes know what will come to pass. Bianca has forseen how this girl, not even Greek, is Fated to live again - to return as _herself_. Bianca has chosen rebirth, is headed even now to the Lethe, albeit by a circuitous route. She will not know her family again, not properly. This child will soon have _her_ brother Nico as a sibling. She will have more than their mutual thirteen years of life. It's not _fair._

Bianca _knows_ that this is not set in stone. If Nico finds her here, he will take her home. She sighs. Had this happened the year previous, she would perhaps have taken this gift and changed her fate …but she knows why this portion of the future is so clearly seen. She has accepted her death. She has chosen to live another life, where maybe she won't need to grow up as quickly. She _cannot_ do this unless she is certain Nico will be okay. (When she leaves. Again. Without a real goodbye because she _cannot_ bear it, _cannot_ let her brother convince her to return to everything she left behind.)

Hazel won't have the desperate urge Bianca has, the need to break loose and _run._ _(Not_ find a place to stay, _not_ parent a hyper tween when she's barely a teenager herself.) Hazel and Nico have no baggage, no broken promises. Hazel can _and will_ stay. Not always physically, but - each will always be only one shadow away from the other. (Would _they_ have taken advantage of that? Would she have met up with her brother, goofed off, taken the chance to be a sibling now that she wasn't practically a parent? Part of her hasn't ever forgiven herself for leaving Nico behind. That part whispers _no. You would have kept running.)_

Much of the future is uncertain still, but the Fated words ring clear. _You're my sister too._ That, ultimately, is why Bianca has visited the fields, sat with the other girl, talked, even tried braiding their wisps of hair. The girl will remember little of her time here, so it's safe enough. She had to know that she could trust this sister; she can. Hazel is kind, loyal, and a genuinely good person. Bianca still can't see her as family, but they're friendly. (She can imagine being friends for real. Maybe not in their home time, but perhaps Hazel could have come to the Lotus, or joined Artemis, or even accepted Elysium. They have so much in common. They could have been close, given the chance.)

Now, Bianca walks alongside her brother, soon to be _their_ brother. She wishes he was still smiling, but now he's downcast. He has tried to summon her. (Were Bianca not a daughter of Hades, she could not even hope to conceal herself from the Ghost King - but she is. In some respects, she always will be.) He has begged her to be here, to come. Only knowing of Hazel allows Bianca to resist his pleas, to continue towards the new life she has chosen to live. 

Yet - Nico isn't going towards the child of Pluto. She sees how fast he's losing hope. He more than likely will return to search again - but she doesn't want that. She wants him to stop, and to start healing. 

So Bianca makes another choice. She runs ahead. She lets Nico sense the barest trace of her presence, every so often - a trace faint enough to easily be attributed to another child of this realm. Soon enough, he is close enough to truly sense this new sister of his. Now imperceptible again, Bianca flits ahead, rejoining Hazel. 

It isn't safe to appear anymore. Hazel won't forget her face that quickly, and Nico draws near. Yet Bianca grieves what could have been, and Hazel sits alone. They could both use some comfort. Before she can convince herself that it is unwise, the daughter of Hades slips her ghostly hand into that of her companion. And thus it is hand in hand that they await their mutual brother, and their separate fates.

**Author's Note:**

> I have Feelings about Bianca. I've read Alive Bianca meeting Hazel, but haven't spotted anything where they meet in the Underworld. Once I realized that they were the same age, the story clicked.


End file.
